Developing new online calibration methods for multidimensional computerized adaptive testing

Multidimensional computerized adaptive testing (MCAT) has received increasing attention over the past few years in educational measurement. Like all other formats of CAT, item replenishment is an essential part of MCAT for its item bank maintenance and management, which governs retiring overexposed or obsolete items over time and replacing them with new ones. Moreover, calibration precision of the new items will directly affect the estimation accuracy of examinees’ ability vectors. In unidimensional CAT (UCAT) and cognitive diagnostic CAT, online calibration techniques have been developed to effectively calibrate new items. However, there has been very little discussion of online calibration in MCAT in the literature. Thus, this paper proposes new online calibration methods for MCAT based upon some popular methods used in UCAT. Three representative methods, Method A, the ‘one EM cycle’ method and the ‘multiple EM cycles’ method, are generalized to MCAT. Three simulation studies were conducted to compare the three new methods by manipulating three factors (test length, item bank design, and level of correlation between coordinate dimensions). The results showed that all the new methods were able to recover the item parameters accurately, and the adaptive online calibration designs showed some improvements compared to the random design under most conditions.     

Representing approximate ordering and equivalence relations

The central question considered is: given appropriate precisations of the ideas of an empirical system's approximately satisfying laws of measurement with error at most ? (for some ? ≥ 0), and of a real-valued function over its domain providing an approximate representation of its basic operations and relations with error at most δ, can it be shown that satisfaction of the laws with ‘sufficiently small’ error insures numerical representability with arbitrarily small error? Positive answers are given in the cases of ordinal and nominal measurement, together with some indications of the sizes of the errors involved. Problems of extending the theory to more complex types of measurement are discussed, some open problems and conjectures are formulated, and a relation between the ‘approximate representation’ and ‘stochastic choice model’ approaches to measurement with fallible data is established.     

Nonsense on Stilts? Wittgenstein,Ethics, and the Lives of Animals

Wittgenstein is often invoked in philosophical disputes over the ethical justifiability of our treatment of animals. Many protagonists believe that Wittgenstein's philosophy points to a quantum difference between human and animal nature that arises out of humans' linguistic capacity. For this reason – its alleged anthropocentrism – animal liberationists tend to dismiss Wittgenstein's philosophy, whereas, for the same reason, anti‐liberationists tend to embrace it. I endorse liberationist moral claims, but think that many on both sides of the dispute fail to grasp the import of Wittgenstein's philosophy. My argument proceeds through close engagement with Michael Leahy's Against Liberation, which makes extensive use of Wittgenstein's ‘notion of language‐games’ as an ‘essential methodological aid’ in its defence and justification of the moral status quo. Leahy's understanding and application of that method exemplifies an entrenched interpretative stance in the wider Wittgensteinian scholarship which I seek to counter. This enables me to show that far from entailing conservatism, as some of his critics and followers contend, Wittgenstein's philosophical method is just as conducive to radical moral and political critique as it is to any other normative position.     

Plural quantifiers: a modal interpretation

One of the standard views on plural quantification is that its use commits one to the existence of abstract objects–sets. On this view claims like ‘some logicians admire only each other’ involve ineliminable quantification over subsets of a salient domain. The main motivation for this view is that plural quantification has to be given some sort of semantics, and among the two main candidates—substitutional and set-theoretic—only the latter can provide the language of plurals with the desired expressive power (given that the nominalist seems committed to the assumption that there can be at most countably many names). To counter this approach I develop a modal-substitutional semantics of plural quantification (on which plural variables, roughly speaking, range over ways names could be) and argue for its nominalistic acceptability.     

The Hesychast method of prayer: its anthropological and symbolic significance

Hesychasm is an Eastern Christian method of prayer based on the invocation of the Name of Jesus and on the ‘descent of the noÛs (‘intellect’, ‘mind’ or ‘spirit’) into the heart’. This spiritual path, the method of which emerged in its most explicit form between the thirteenth and the fourteenth centuries on Mount Athos, is the core of Christianity, since it consists in the inner practice of the fervent and continuous repetition of the holy Name and aims to achieve metánoia (‘change of the noÛs’) for the entire human being; and a personal relationship with Jesus Christ through an incessant militia super terram comparable to the Muslim jihād al-akbar (‘great holy war’). A meditated analysis of some forms of symbolism which characterize the method in question plus a few comparisons between some central components of Hesychasm, Sufism and other traditional spiritual paths may be an adequate starting-point to understand more deeply the symbolic and anthropological aspects of this eminently ‘paradoxical’ ascetic discipline.     

Toward a new transcendental aesthetic: Merleau-Ponty’s appraisal of Kant’s philosophical method

ABSTRACT

In light of the central role scientific research plays in Merleau-Ponty’s phenomenology, the question has arisen whether his phenomenology involves some sort of commitment to naturalism or whether it is better understood along transcendental lines. In order to make headway on this issue, I focus specifically on Merleau-Ponty’s method and its relationship to Kant’s transcendental method. On the one hand, I argue that Merleau-Ponty rejects Kant’s method, the ‘method-without-which’, which seeks the a priori conditions of the possibility of experience. On the other hand, I show that this does not amount to a methodological rejection of the transcendental altogether. To the contrary, I claim that Merleau-Ponty offers a new account of the transcendental and a priori that he takes to be the proper subject matter of his phenomenological method, the method of ‘radical reflection’. And I submit that this method has important affinities with aesthetic themes in Kant’s philosophy.     

Yu in the Xunzi: toward a precise understanding

An ongoing dialogue in Xunzi scholarship addresses the role of yu (欲), often rendered as ‘desire,’ in motivation, but little has been said about what yu actually is, or whether the translation of ‘desire’ accurately reflects Xunzi’s use of the term. Employing textual analysis alongside research in cognitive science, most notably work on the so-called ‘wanting-liking’ distinction, I work toward a more precise understanding of Xunzi’s notion of yu and its functions. I suggest that yu be construed as a kind of desire with an emphasis on ‘wanting’ that, while motivational, differs from broader, less precise notions of desire, and that this feature constitutes a distinctive aspect of Xunzi’s philosophy of psychology. In so doing, I propose a particular methodological approach for the interpretation of classical Chinese philosophy: when interpreting concepts that are subjects of empirical inquiry, empirical findings should lead us to favor some interpretations over others.     

Work Engagement of Dual-Working Couples: Dissimilarity and Its Relation to Both Partners’ Well-Being

Work engagement is a positive, fulfilling, work-related state of mind that is characterized by vigor, dedication, and absorption. Work engaged individuals not only function better at work, but also transfer these benefits to home - research has shown that work engagement crosses over between marital partners. In previous studies on crossover, this phenomenon was evidenced only by significant correlation between self-reports of partners’ work engagement, while measures of dissimilarity between partners were completely ignored. However, work engagement dissimilarity - with one partner being highly enthusiastic and immersed in his/her work and the other one lowly - could be related to some aspects of both partners’ well-being and might improve its prediction. Hence, the goal of this study was to examine work engagement dissimilarity within dual-earning couples. In addition to self-report measures, we collected partners’ ratings of work engagement and its subdimensions as well. The data collected on 178 dual-working Croatian couples showed significant correlation of overall work engagement, vigor, dedication and absorption between various pairs of self- and other-ratings measures (partners’ self-ratings; self-ratings and partner’s ratings; and partner’s self-ratings and his/her ratings of work engagement of the partner). Moreover, difference in self-ratings and ratings of partner’s work engagement showed negative correlation with life satisfaction of both partners, suggesting that work engagement dissimilarity has a potential to be related to some aspects of partners’ well-being.     

The AB Identification Survey: Identifying Absolute versus Relative Determinants of Happiness

This article introduces a simple survey method to distinguish between two types of variables that affect happiness—type A, which exerts an absolute effect on happiness, and type B, which affects happiness only through social context. The authors validate the method by comparing its findings with the findings of a theoretically superior but less practical experimental method, and use the method to identify the AB nature of a variety of naturally-occurring variables among both college students and people with work experience. We conclude by discussing the limitation of this method as well as its potential to inform policymakers about where to invest resources in order to improve people’s happiness over time.     

The triumph of American psychiatry: How it created the modern therapeutic state

Over the past 170 years, American psychiatry has progressively asserted its authority over a larger segment of the American population. From the mid-1800s to the end of World War II, psychiatry had authority over the asylum population, which markedly increased in the first half of the twentieth century due to the influence of eugenics, an ideology that argued the ‘mentally ill’ had to be segregated from society. After the war, American psychiatry adopted Freudian conceptions of mental disorders, which enabled it to begin treating people in the community who were ‘neurotic’ in some way, which dramatically expanded its influence in society. Then, in the 1970s, when many in American society were questioning psychiatry’s legitimacy as a branch of medicine, the American Psychiatric Association (APA) responded by adopting a disease model for diagnosing mental disorders, which it set forth in the third edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual. There were no scientific discoveries that led to this new model, but soon the APA was informing the American public that mental disorders were diseases of the brain, and that psychiatric drugs helped fix those diseases, ‘like insulin for diabetes.’ The APA, in concert with pharmaceutical companies, has successfully exported this belief system to much of the developed world. In order to break free of this ‘therapeutic state,’ the public needs to understand the history of how it came to be, and see the social injury it has caused.     

On authenticity: the question of truth in construction and autobiography

Freud was occupied with the question of truth and its verification throughout his work. He looked to archaeology for an evidence model to support his ideas on reconstruction. He also referred to literature regarding truth in reconstruction, where he saw shifts between historical fact and invention, and detected such swings in his own case histories. In his late work Freud pondered over the impossibility of truth in reconstruction by juxtaposing truth with ‘probability’. Developments on the role of fantasy and myth in reconstruction and contemporary debates over objectivity have increasingly highlighted the question of ‘truth’ in psychoanalysis. I will argue that ‘authenticity’ is a helpful concept in furthering the discussion over truth in reconstruction. Authenticity denotes that which is genuine, trustworthy and emotionally accurate in a reconstruction, as observed within the immediacy of the analyst/patient interaction. As authenticity signifies genuineness in a contemporary context its origins are verifiable through the analyst’s own observations of the analytic process itself. Therefore, authenticity is about the likelihood and approximation of historical truth rather than its certainty. In that respect it links with Freud’s musings over ‘probability’. Developments on writing ‘truths’ in autobiography mirror those in reconstruction, and lend corroborative support from another source.     

Origin and destiny of subjectivity: from professional roles to treatment processes,through an interpretation of the remains of the day by kazuo ishiguro

This reflection addresses a very important topic for care professions, with a special look at psychotherapy. To clarify the role of subjectivity and the birth and maturation of a professional role, I will present an analysis of a literary text through which it will be easier to find out how the identity of a professional role is formed and starts to mature and get codified. In particular, what are the risks associated with its rigid codification to its technical normative? I intend to draw a comparison with some subjectivity building forms that have founded the Western human’s model in its professional articulations over the centuries.     

论李鼎祚《周易集解》的流传

《周易集解》从成书到流行,是有一个过程的,其版本的流变正好反映了这个过程。目前讨论《周易集解》版本传承的文章,或侧重于早期,或仅仅据清代以来目录学的著作抄撮一番。然而许多公私目录的记载都是有问题的;而仅仅通过书的封面题记来说明历史上《周易集解》都有哪些刻本,不免过于简单。更为重要的是,要通过对每种版本的目见和校勘,发现各版本的异同,进一步揭示版本之间的传承影响,并对版本状况作出判断,以为进一步的经典内容和思想的研究提供一个坚实的基础。     

HALAKHA ADAPTS TO MODERN TECHNOLOGY IN THE EARLY TWENTIETH CENTURY

This article will attempt to shed some light on the phenomenon of the adoption of modern technologies by Orthodox Jews. It examines the debate over the halakhic status of electricity in the early twentieth century, concentrating on two rabbis of that period, Yehuda Yudel Rosenberg (1859–1935) of Montreal, and Shlomo Zalman Auerbach (1910–1995) of Jerusalem, who wrote notable works on the subject. The works discussed are Rabbi Rosenberg’s Me’or hahashmal (1924) and Rabbi Auerbach’s Me’orei esh (1935). These works are examined in the context of the development of halakha and its application to new technologies in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, and also in light of the halakhic strategies of both rabbis. Finally, unpublished letters of Rabbi Auerbach to Rabbi Rosenberg are examined that allow us some insight into the inception of Rabbi Auerbach’s work.     

Frequency of occurrence as a psychophysical continuum: Weber’s fraction,Ekman’s fraction,range effects,and the phi-gamma hypothesis

Using the continuum of frequency of occurrence of words in English, it was found that: (1) errors in judgment are distributed lognormally rather than normally, and therefore the standard method of calculating Weber’s fraction underestimates its definition, (2) Weber’s fraction has an extremely large value of 3.3, (3)Ekman’s fraction equals 1.81, not .03 as with sensory continua, and (4)the logarithm of the dynamic range times Stevens’ law exponent equals 3.83, not 1.53 as with sensory continua. The last two results favor Teghtsoonian’s underlying sensory scale interpretation over Poulton’s range effects interpretation of the range-exponent relation.     

The ‘helping’ professions

A continuing series of scandals and tragedies is resulting in increasing public disquiet over the practice of the ‘helping’ professions. In the author's view, this disquiet is justified on both theoretical and practical grounds. Current practice is based on a natural-scientific, medical model. This introduces a bias analogous to the inquisitorial method in law, and results in misreading the nature of the problems of the people with whom the ‘caring’ professions deal. The author proposes an existential approach based on moral science in the Socratic tradition of elenchos — of conjoint personal enquiry. The general principles informing his stance are analogous to those of due process in law. He describes his method, which he calls social phenomenological analysis, and its theoretical basis, and illustrates it showing its application to the case of a fifteen year old boy, labelled delinquent, and his family.     

The epistemic superiority of experiment to simulation

This paper defends the naïve thesis that the method of experiment has per se an epistemic superiority over the method of computer simulation, a view that has been rejected by some philosophers writing about simulation, and whose grounds have been hard to pin down by its defenders. I further argue that this superiority does not come from the experiment’s object being materially similar to the target in the world that the investigator is trying to learn about, as both sides of dispute over the epistemic superiority thesis have assumed. The superiority depends on features of the question and on a property of natural kinds that has been mistaken for material similarity. Seeing this requires holding other things equal in the comparison of the two methods, thereby exposing that, under the conditions that will be specified, the simulation is necessarily epistemically one step behind the corresponding experiment. Practical constraints like feasibility and morality mean that scientists do not often face an other-things- equal comparison when they choose between experiment and simulation. Nevertheless, I argue, awareness of this superiority and of the general distinction between experiment and simulation is important for maintaining motivation to seek answers to new questions.     

时间视角下的组织公正研究

组织公正的动态研究是在时间视角下分析组织公正的变化及其影响。根据研究中不同的时间跨度,可将该领域的研究分为短期公正变化与长期公正变化研究。短期公正变化研究主要分析公正事件在日层次上的变化对组织内个体的影响。长期公正变化则分析组织内个体过往的公正经历如何影响他们当前的心理与行为。研究主要从自我调节资源的变化、不确定管理、社会认知及长时社会交换角度解释公正的动态影响。未来可从公正动态变化的特征、前因机制及其差异化影响机制开展研究。     

What Do Happiness Studies Study?

What do, or should, happiness studies study? Everything to which we refer with the word ‘‘happiness’’ is worth some study. But the study of subjective states covers only part of the ground covered by the word ‘‘happiness’’ and by no means all the ground central to understanding happiness. On the central use of ‘‘happiness,’’ to be happy is to be glad or satisfied or content, which suggests subjectivity, with having a good measure of what is important in life, which suggests objectivity. We find the same suggestion of both subjectivity and objectivity in the list of what enhances the quality of life. There are strong arguments in favour both of the subjectivity of what enhances life and of its objectivity. I argue that neither is right, that the story is more complicated. The conclusion of the story is that there is a list of several non-reducible features that contribute to the quality of a characteristic human life, and that anything that contributes to the quality of any human life will be one or other of these features. But there is a problem. When we speak of the quality of a human life, there may be no one thing we have in mind. Perhaps some of us are not disagreeing with one another over the nature of a ‘‘happy’’ life but speaking of different things.